Since I first read Araminta Station over 20 years ago, Jack Vance has been one of my favourite authors. I’ve read just about every SF book he wrote and over the past couple of years I’ve been getting hold of the last few older and more obscure books on my to-read list. Subterranean Press have brought out several Vance volumes and this latest includes 5 novellas/short novels, including two that I haven’t before read.
Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.
Gareth D Jones: Unofficially the second most widely translated science fiction short story author in the world
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Saturday, July 25, 2015
The Gondolier in Indonesian
Indonesian is the 37th language for The Gondolier - 16 translations have been published in print and on-line while the rest have been posted here on my blog.
Haluan perahu gondolaku membelah pelan air
yang tenang di terusan kota. Perahu yang indah ini telah melayaniku selama
bertahun-tahun, mengangkut penumpang melalui terusan-terusan kota melalui
tangan-tangan terampil beberapa generasi nenek moyangku yang mendayung di
terusan-terusan kota ini.
Matahari mulai terbenam melintasi kota tua
tersebut, merubah warna air menjadi seperti pita bertinta yang terbentang di
antara bangunan-bangunan batu pasir yang Nampak anggun itu. Aku menghirup dalam
udara melalui angin sepoi petang yang dingin.
Apakah masih ada tempat yang lebih indah
dibanding kota dengan terusan anak sungainya yang menakjubkan ini? Ketika
perahu merapat pelan ke dermaganya, aku berhenti untuk menatap puas ke atas
memandang langit-langit Mars yang mulai gelap.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Catching Up With the Classics
There are lots of novels hailed as classics of the genre –
those that won the Hugo and/or Nebula awards, those that were reprinted a lot,
or that have been included in the SF Masterworks series, or that are often
included in various ‘best of’ lists. In recent years I’ve made an effort to get
hold of as many of these ‘classics’ as possible to fill in the gaps in my
literary heritage. They haven't always lived up to their reputation.
Here’s a brief review of what I’ve read recently:
Childhood’s End – Arther C Clarke – it was OK but rather
dated now.
Desolation Road – Ian McDonald – wonderfully lyrical
The Dispossessed – Ursula K. LeGuin – Pretty good, but a
little dated.
Non-Stop – Brian Aldiss – Brilliant.
The City and the Stars – Arthur C Clarke – Good but slow.
The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. LeGuin - Brilliantly
evocative.
Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein – Don’t know what
the fuss was about.
Ringworld – Larry Niven – Didn’t enjoy at all.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Robert Heinlein – Enjoyable,
but not great.
Gateway – Frederick Pohl – Genius.
The Songs of Distant Earth – Isaac Asimov – It was OK.
Hyperion – Dan Simmons – Brilliant.
Lined up on my shelf I have Helliconia Spring
Wednesday, July 08, 2015
Author Interview: Doug Smith
Douglas Smith is an award-winning Canadian author whose
work has appeared in twenty-five languages and over thirty countries. You can see already why I feel an affinity for him. His
fiction includes the urban fantasy novel, The
Wolf at the End of the World, and the collections Chimerascope, Impossibilia, and La
Danse des Esprits.
Doug is a three-time winner of Canada's Aurora Award, and
has been a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award, CBC's Bookies Award,
Canada's juried Sunburst Award, and France's juried Prix Masterton and Prix Bob
Morane. A short film based on Doug's story "By Her Hand, She Draws You
Down" won several awards when it toured film festivals around the world.
I took the short cut to Canada, via Greenland, and our teams of huskies sniffed around each other as we dismounted our sleds and settled down to drink tea from thermos flasks and talk about writing and translations.
GJ: How did your first translated sale come about?
DS: It was 1998. I had
started to sell my short fiction regularly by then. Somewhere (in Locus, I think), I came across a
reference to a German anthology series that was looking for stories, including
stories originally published in English, which would be translated at no cost.
I sent them two stories that I'd already sold in English, which they accepted
for two separate anthologies, one SF and one fantasy.
GJ: Did you set out to lead the way in translations, or did
it just happen by accident?
DS: I'm not sure I'd
say I'm leading the way. There are other writers, Frank Roger, most notably,
with more foreign language sales than I have. Currently, I've sold stories in
thirty-one countries and twenty-five languages.
No, I had
no plans or expectations that I'd end up selling so many foreign language
reprints. I just enjoyed the idea of having my stories read more widely, in
other countries and other languages. Plus it's found money. And there's a fun
factor too, Foreign language reprints bring the chance to see your name
alongside of some of the biggest names in fiction. Even when I was starting out
writing short fiction, my foreign language sales let my byline appear with the
likes of Steven King, Neil Gaiman, Larry Niven, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Tanith
Lee, Neal Stephenson, Orson Scott Card, Frank Herbert, not to mention James
Branch Cabell and H.P. Lovecraft.
GJ: What led to the development of the Foreign Market List?
DS: My first pair of sales to those German
anthologies got me interested in foreign language markets, so I started to
research how many might be out there. The industry magazine, Locus, ran articles periodically
reporting on the current state of science fiction and fantasy in other countries,
and these articles often mentioned local short fiction markets in those
countries. From there and from Google, I gradually built a list of the various
non-English short fiction genre markets around the world.
Since I found it useful, I assumed that
other writers might as well. I was also looking for something to add some extra
value to my brand new website, so once the list grew to a sizeable number of
markets, I added it as a feature to my site. Having it on the website also
brings the advantage that writers and editors regularly provide me with
updates, additions, corrections to the information on the FML, so everyone
gains since the list is kept as current and accurate as possible, thanks to all
the various interested parties.
GJ: Is there a language you’d really like to be published in?
DS: Hmm. Interesting
question. I've never really thought about it. Esperanto would be fun. And maybe
Welsh, since I'm part Welsh on my dad's side.
GJ:You write a variety of SF, fantasy and horror. What
appeals to you about writing in those different genres?
DS: As a kid, I read
widely across speculative fiction genres, especially SF, fantasy, and mystery,
but general fiction as well. So when I began writing, it just seemed natural to
write across genres.
As a writer, I don't
feel restricted by one particular genre. I can tell any story I can think of in
the way I feel is best suited to that story idea. I really don't think about
genre when I write. I don't think "oh, this is an SF story. I can't do
*that* in an SF story." Which is probably why I tend to mix genres not
only across the stories I write, but within a story as well. As a reader, I've
always enjoyed stories that mix genres. One of my favourite writers, Roger Zelazny,
was a master of "science fantasy", stories which have the veneer or
trappings of fantasy, but have a core logic of SF, stories like "Lord of
Light" or "Jack of Shadows."
Not being restricted
to a single genre, there are fewer (no?) limitations to the types of stories
that I can tell. The stories still need an internal logic and consistency, but
I'm not bound by any concerns of matching current reality. That is wonderfully
freeing for a writer.
Also, as a writer, I
appreciate the power of speculative fiction as a literature is, to paraphrase
the great SF anthologist Damon Knight, to hold up a distorted mirror to our
current reality, to focus on some aspect of our world which needs to change (in
the writer's opinion). It's that "if this goes on…" type of story
that allow speculative fiction to provide a social commentary in a way that
mimetic fiction cannot.
Spec fic can use
other worlds--future or alternate--to focus on aspects of our real world, our
shared beliefs, our conflicting beliefs, our humanity, our inhumanity, our
potential, our failings, to let us view ourselves through a different lens, at
a slightly different angle. Speculative fiction, by the very nature of its
unreality, can make us see our reality in ways that mimetic fiction cannot. How
we relate to those views, which messages resonate with us as individual
readers, can then tell us something about ourselves.
GJ: Which publication are you particularly proud of, or
excited about?
DS: After many years of
writing only short fiction, I was excited and proud of my first novel, the
urban fantasy, The Wolf at
the End of the World. It was a sequel to my award-winning novelette,
"Spirit Dance" (which, btw, has been published thirty-two times in
twenty-one countries). The novel picks up five years after the events of the
short story and features the same cast of characters plus a set of new ones.
Here's the back cover
blurb:
A shapeshifter hero
battles ancient spirits, a covert government agency, and his own dark past in a
race to solve a murder that could mean the end of the world.
Cree and Ojibwe
legends mix with current day environmental conflict in this fast-paced urban
fantasy that keeps you on the edge of your seat right up to its explosive
conclusion.
And if you're talking
about pride, I'd point to this quote from one of my writing heroes, Charles de
Lint, who wrote the introduction for the book:
"I can’t
remember the last time I read a book that spoke to me, so eloquently, and so
deeply, on so many levels. ... I’ll be rereading it in the future because it’s
that sort of book. Richly layered and deeply resonant. An old friend, from the
first time you read it." —Charles de
Lint, World Fantasy Award winner
I'd also mention,
since we're talking about short stories, my guide for short fiction writers, Playing the Short
Game: How to Market & Sell Short Fiction, which came out in
October.
GJ: You’re first novel was The Wolf at the End of the World.
Are you concentrating on novel-length fiction now?
DS: Yes, I am. I still plan to keep
writing short fiction, but my focus is and will be on novel length works.
GJ: What do you have planned for the rest of the year?
DS: I am currently 96,000 words into the first draft of a new
YA urban fantasy novel, which I'm guessing will end up at about 120,000 words
when all done and edited. It's the first in a planned trilogy and I can't
remember when I've had this much fun writing anything. It's set in Toronto and
features two teenaged protagonists, a love story, astral projection, body
swapping, rune magic, very creepy villains, and a most unusual superhero.
GJ: Thanks!
DS: Thanks for inviting me!
Sunday, July 05, 2015
The Probable Tradesman
My flash fiction story The Probable Tradesman is now on-line in the new issue of Abyss and Apex.
This is my fifth story published this year, and my eighth pro sale altogether.
This is my fifth story published this year, and my eighth pro sale altogether.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)